Former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa sentenced to eight years in prison

Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa was sentenced in absentia on Tuesday April 7 to eight years in prison for corruption at first instance.

Rafael Correa, head of the Ecuadorian state for ten years, from 2007 to 2017, left his country three years ago and lives in Belgium. He was accused along with 19 other defendants, including his vice-president already imprisoned in another corruption case, of having accepted $ 7.5 million in bribes, in exchange for the award of public contracts, for finance the electoral campaigns of the ruling party between 2012 and 2016.

The court found Rafael Correa guilty of these embezzlements, further prohibiting him from exercising any political activity for twenty-five years. Prosecutors had requested the maximum sentence against the former head of state, who was portrayed as the head of a "criminal structure".

Rafael Correa, who led a marked policy on the left during his presidency, denied all of these accusations, which he blamed on his successor, the current president Lenin Moreno. Rafael Correa initially supported him when he came to power in 2017 before becoming his main opponent.

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"I know the process and what the judges say is LIES. They have proven absolutely NOTHING. Testimony completely false, without evidence," he tweeted.

"Well, this is what they were looking for: to use justice to get what they never had in the polls. I'm fine. I am worried about my colleagues," the former president tweeted again, lawyers have announced they will appeal.

Bueno, esto era lo que buscaban: manejando la justicia lograr lo que nunca pudieron en las urnas.
Yo estoy bien. Me preocupan mis compañeros. From seguro ganaremos to nivel internacional, porque todo es una mamarrachada, pero toma años.
From your voto depends that esta pesadilla acabe. https://t.co/TSo83MICa4

If the decision is confirmed on appeal, the political career of Rafael Correa will be ended because the Ecuadorian Constitution prohibits the candidacy of convicts for corruption, illicit enrichment or embezzlement.

Target of thirty complaints in Ecuador, the former president is also prosecuted for the kidnapping, quickly foiled, of an opponent in Colombia in 2012. But this trial is pending because in Ecuador, the accused must be present to be tried for such a crime.

With Reuters and AFP

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